Posted on 06/27/2009 5:18:22 PM PDT by devane617
Living at the legendary Playboy Mansion in California, becoming big-time models and being the girlfriends of Hugh Hefner has been a blast, even more so than Karissa and Kristina Shannon could have imagined.
Yet the 19-year-old twins admit they sometimes get a little homesick.
In particular, the onetime Clearwater residents miss Clearwater Beach, Ybor City's nightlife, their favorite radio station (WLLD-FM 98.7), their friends, and of course, their family.
"We try as much as we can to visit," Kristina Shannon said in a phone interview this week.
Every time they do, they're a little more famous.
A year ago, the striking sisters were WingHouse servers. Today, they're Playboy magazine's Playmates of the Month for the July/August 2009 double issue, currently on newsstands.
They'll be featured during the upcoming season of the E! hit The Girls Next Door, a reality show that will chronicle their lives with the man known worldwide simply as "Hef."
"I love Playboy," Karissa Shannon said. "I think Playboy's classy. Being in the same issue with Kristina is cool. It's a great experience for us."
Born in Ann Arbor, Mich., Karissa and Kristina moved to a home on Clearwater Beach when they were 1. As teens, they attended Largo High for a while but also were homeschooled.
The sisters worked at WingHouses in Largo and St. Petersburg, and enjoyed outdoor activities such as riding water scooters and parasailing.
The twins' odyssey into their new world started in August when they visited California for a photo shoot after being chosen as finalists for Playboy's 55th Playmate Search. During the trip, they caught Hefner's attention and began dating the 83-year-old shortly thereafter.
They moved into his mansion in October.
"He's fun," Kristina Shannon said. "He's nice, really laid-back. He's all about having fun. Everyone gets along with him. He's very, very smart."
Shortly after making the move, the sisters found themselves in the news again when TMZ.com reported that they had been charged with battery earlier in the year after a skirmish at a Clearwater party. Both pleaded no contest and received probation.
The sisters, who are difficult to tell apart (the only noticeable difference is a beauty mark on Karissa's neck), often dress alike. They wore matching tennis skirts and sailor caps for their 10-page pictorial, shot at the mansion.
"We loved to do our pictorial together because it's twice as hot," Kristina Shannon said, laughing.
The twins say their family and friends have been supportive. Their 13-year-old sister, Rebecca, looks up to them, their grandmother, Annette, was thrilled, and their father, Patrick, is a longtime Playboy fan.
The sisters are not the first Playmates with Tampa Bay roots (the exact number with local ties isn't known). In 2007, Spencer Scott, who was born in St. Petersburg, was a Playmate. Clearwater-born Raquel Gibson was a Playmate two years earlier.
The twins say they're enjoying life in Southern California, but they plan to visit home in August. And who knows, they just might convince their boyfriend to come along for the ride.
"We're trying," Kristina Shannon said.
I wonder when “Hef” dies if he’ll get the same media attention as Michael J...
He will be hailed as a saint for all his humanitarian work...
This sort of story really should include pictures.
It’s a touching family story. I’m waiting for the Hallmark movie.
Their Dad is happy they are out spending time with Grandpa?
Posting this without pics is like ... well, posting this without pics.
Hef could easily be Great-Grandpa.
See #9...Looks like they should still be in Jr. High.
Does anyone really wonder if those girls would be staying with Hef if he was not rich and famous?
Does anyone wonder if Hef would have those girls staying with him if they were not pretty and young?
...says the 19 year old...
What’s the old saying: There is little difference between Saturday night and Sunday morning.
Um, ICK.
I've been to the WingHouse. They do have some pretty hot girls there. Of course, I went there for the food, not to ogle the girls.
But they are of age and FR rules have been honored.. ;)
Winghouse? Never heard of that chain. I wonder why Hooters doesn’t sue.
I think Playboy is missing a bet, because the truth is that they were never selling sex as much as they were selling male fashion. Not just clothing and accessories, but style. At their peak, they were the James Bond magazine.
To see what Playboy was, you can see a much more amped-up version in Wired or Maxim magazines. And while few men ever bought the James Bond accessories mentioned in Playboy, if they had money, that is what they wanted to buy.
But there was more. Playboy also was intellectually trendy and fashionable. For years they actually did print “articles” that were worth reading. Some of this was truly literature, and worthwhile enough for Playboy to be translated into braille. In this way, it was trying to capture what had made The Saturday Evening Post such a magnificent magazine before it.
But such writing was expensive, so Playboy moved to the arena of entertainment and sports, again providing an in depth niche that readers couldn’t get elsewhere.
As always, Playboy had to shoot for the young male market, trying to keep a “daring” mood, a hair’s breadth from “tacky”.
In the final analysis, about the only way they can succeed in the long term is to each year apprentice a handful a new college graduates, which after a year it farms out to other organizations. Then ask them to define what is hot and what is not.
I'd guess Hef is older than their Grandpa.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.